Parallelization and CI Integration in Playwright

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In this guide, I’ll demonstrate how to leverage Playwright’s built-in parallel test execution capabilities and integrate them seamlessly with Continuous Integration (CI) systems, such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins, ensuring a robust and automated testing pipeline.

Understanding Parallel Test Execution

Playwright supports parallel execution out-of-the-box by running tests simultaneously to reduce total execution time. By default, Playwright detects the optimal number of parallel workers based on your system’s CPU cores.

To explicitly specify the number of workers, modify your playwright.config.js:

Add Pipeline Workers

// playwright.config.js
module.exports = {
  workers: 4, // Adjust based on your CI or local machine capabilities
};

Integrating with GitHub Actions

Here’s a simple GitHub Actions workflow for Playwright tests:

Github Actions

# .github/workflows/playwright.yml
name: Playwright Tests

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v4
        with:
          node-version: '20'

      - name: Install dependencies
        run: npm install

      - name: Install Playwright browsers
        run: npx playwright install --with-deps

      - name: Run tests
        run: npx playwright test

This setup automatically triggers test runs on each push or pull request.

Integrating with GitLab CI

Here’s how to configure Playwright tests with GitLab CI:

GitLab CI

# .gitlab-ci.yml
playwright-tests:
  image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright:v1.44.0-jammy
  stage: test
  script:
    - npm install
    - npx playwright install --with-deps
    - npx playwright test

This configuration uses an official Playwright Docker image, providing all necessary dependencies.

Integrating with Jenkins

To run Playwright tests in Jenkins, create a Jenkinsfile in your repository:

Jenkins

pipeline {
  agent any

  stages {
    stage('Install Dependencies') {
      steps {
        sh 'npm install'
        sh 'npx playwright install --with-deps'
      }
    }

    stage('Run Playwright Tests') {
      steps {
        sh 'npx playwright test'
      }
    }
  }
}

Conclusion

You’ve successfully integrated Playwright’s powerful parallel test execution with popular CI tools. This setup ensures efficient, reliable, and scalable testing pipelines, ultimately improving the quality and reliability of your application delivery process.